Nov 032020
 
Kenny Wiggins, Detroit Lions (September 8, 2019)

Kenny Wiggins – © USA TODAY Sports

NEW YORK GIANTS SIGN KENNY WIGGINS…
The New York Giants have signed offensive guard Kenny Wiggins, who was cut by the Detroit Lions last week. The 32-year old, 6’6”, 315-pound Wiggins was originally signed as an undrafted rookie free agent by the Baltimore Ravens after the 2011 NFL Draft. He has spent time with the Ravens (2011), San Francisco 49ers (2012-2013), San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers (2013-2017), and Lions (2018-2020). Overall, Wiggins has played in 79 regular-season games with 38 starts.

NOVEMBER 3, 2020 JOE JUDGE PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Joe Judge addressed the media on Friday to discuss his team’s 25-23 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (the video is also available on YouTube):

Q: How many serious conversations did you guys have about players on your roster, on other rosters, and why did you end up standing pat?

A: We felt good about where we are. Obviously, there are a lot of phone calls that happen on days like this. We had a lot of calls coming in today for obviously a lot of players. But listen, there are some foundational pieces that we’re definitely looking to build with in this program. We’re happy with the way our players are working right now. We’re happy with the progress they’re making. This was a position right here that we want to keep building with this team right there. We want to keep building with the guys we have. We have a lot of confidence in the guys we have, and they’re hard work is paying off. There are a lot of calls that come in. Obviously, guys looking to fill positions they have of need. But for us, we’re not looking to go ahead and make anyone else’s roster for them.

Q: I know last night you were asked about Golden (Tate) saying ‘throw me the ball’ when he yelled into the camera after the touchdown. I’m sure you’re aware about today, his wife posted some stuff on social media saying she doesn’t think he’s been getting the ball enough. I’m just curious if you’ve had any conversations with Golden about if he’s concerned about his role or if he’s frustrated, and kind of the context of that?

A: No, I haven’t actually. Last night after the press conference when that was brought up to me, I didn’t see any players after that. They were all really out of the locker room by the time I got done with that. Then to be honest with you, just walking down the stairs to this right here, Pat Hanlon kind of brought me up to speed a little bit on some of the deals you’re referring to with social media. I haven’t had a chance to look at any of that at this point. I’ll do that at some point tonight. It’s been a very busy night and a very busy day between reviewing Tampa Bay, moving on to Washington and then having some league business in terms of people calling about players and things of that nature. It’s been a very busy whatever you want to call it, 18 hours, and it’s far from done right now. I’m not overly familiar with all of the details of that right there, so I’ll make sure I get fluent in that before I move forward with anything.

Q: With Golden though, how would you access how he has played for you guys this season? I know his numbers are obviously down from what it’s been in the past, but what have you made of his season?

A: Obviously, he’s made some big catches for us in the last few games. Golden has battled through some injuries, he’s a tough dude. He’s come to work every day and he’s worked. Again, we can only ask a guy to make production when it’s in the situation where the ball comes his way. I think our offense has done a really good job looking at the numbers from the last few games. We’re getting the ball spread around to a lot of different targets, having a lot of production from different guys. That’s always our goal, to involve everyone at the game. I want to make sure that we create scenarios where different guys have focus in different plays, that we can get them the ball. Hey look, I think Jason (Garrett) has done a good job calling the offense, and they’re moving in the right direction.

Q: You’ve talked about you’re seeing progress and obviously there are some mistakes and penalties and things like that. But if that gets eliminated, do you see this as a group that’s going to start winning games?

A: I think the first thing is you just have to eliminate the mistakes and give yourself a chance to win. Within that sense of the question you asked, yeah, we have to start doing things in that position, eliminating these mistakes, to reap the rewards of our hard work. But I see this team making a lot of progress. I see them being close, obviously, in a lot of situations. Close isn’t good enough in this business. We have to keep pushing forward and get the results that we’re working for. But it starts with eliminating those mistakes.

Q: Back to Golden for one second, what is his role right now? This a guy who’s probably doing something a little different than he’s done in the past. I think he played 54 percent of the snaps yesterday, pretty much the same the week before. This is a guy who’s used to playing a lot throughout his career to be quite frank.

A: Yeah, his role is the same as every player on our team. Show up to work, work hard, put the team first and when you have the ball come your way, to make a play on it. If you’re not involved with the ball directly at you, to block, help the quarterback. For defensive players, to make sure we play our leverage, tackle, and get the team off the field. Look, put the team first in whatever you’re asked to do. If you catch 10 balls, great. If you catch one ball, that’s great, too. On the other plays within the game, do everything you can to help the team. That’s everybody’s role.

Q: Also, I’m sure you’ve had a chance to go look back at the tape. What did you see when you saw those two interceptions from Daniel (Jones)?

A: I think there are a number of things we have to clean up on both plays. Nothing is ever one person’s fault. It kind of starts with we have to make sure as coaches, we keep making the right calls. I think Jason’s done a really good job with that right now with the offense of changing some things up and giving our offense a chance to really be multiple and move the ball around. We need to make sure we keep continuing on protecting better. Then ball security across the board has got to be an emphasis. We need to all raise our level of play.

Q: With regard to Daniel, obviously, there have been so much good to go along with the mistakes. I know you were very adamant last night about him remaining your quarterback for obvious reasons. I’m just wondering, has there been any talk with you and Jason about the potential benefit of sitting him for a game for him to kind of maybe take a step back and maybe gain more clarity or whatever? Sometimes that helps guys.

A: No.

Q: I’m wondering what your thought was on Shane (Lemieux) now that you got a chance to watch the film? Is there a point where you want to get all those rookies in the lineup full-time? How is it balancing all of that?

A: I want to play everybody. Look, when Will (Hernandez) gets back, I plan on playing all three of those guards. Shane got in last night, he definitely had a good first job out there, moving around and getting caught up with some things. There are some things to clean up with Shane, obviously. But I’ll tell you what, the level of competitiveness he plays with, some nasty, he definitely gave us some juice in there. Look, you line up for your first snap in the NFL and you’re seeing Ndamukong Suh across from you right there, that’s a ‘welcome to the NFL, buddy.’ But this guy didn’t blink. He didn’t shy away from anything. He really answered the bell for us. Look, as far as the guard position, we plan on playing all three of those guys. The tackle position, the same thing, keep rolling all three of those guys and making sure that everyone is gaining experience and staying fresh as much as we could. And I say all the time guys, I plan on everyone who goes to the game playing for us. That’s not just lip service.

Q: Sort of a technical question in your special teams wheelhouse. With the punt return and you had the funky lineup with no returners. What goes into that?

A: It’s just a situational call we feel it’s best for the team. There’s times when you want to put pressure on the opponent and there’s times when you want to have a max return type of look. Last night we thought it was good to put pressure on the opponent. It really paid off, it was a 33-yard punt. Whether you are getting a 50-yard punt with a 17-yard return or a 33 yard punt, the net is the net. We were able to go ahead and produce some field position off of pressure right there. That’s something I’ve done through my career. Tom (Quinn) and T-Mac (Thomas McGaughey) do a really good job scheming up opponents, really looking into it. Had great conversations and bounce ideas off each other. We thought this was an opportunity this week that that’s something to consider in the game plan and really come out and play aggressive with it.

Q: I guess into today’s world of social media and what not. How responsible do you hold players for things that their brothers or their fathers or wives say? Your player didn’t say it, but how much do you talk to them about the people around them and what they say?

A: I’m not going to get to particular in terms of all those answers right now. We talk to our players a lot about responsibility on social media. It’s definitely a different platform than it was I’d say if you go back 10 or 15 years. We’re very specific about keeping some things off social media in terms of how it reflects to the New York Giants and organizationally. That being said, guys obviously have their own platforms for different reasons. Some guys use it professionally in terms of marketing, some guys use it socially, some guys use it to stay connected to friends whatever it is. It’s definitely something that’s become part of society now. We talk to our players on a regular basis about their use of social media.

Q: I don’t think we ever asked you but you joined twitter like a month ago. What made you do that?

A: We just talked organizationally with our PR department and our community services and all. We thought it was a good way to kind of get out some of the messages of some of the things the team of teams are doing throughout the communities. That’s really it right there. I’m not going to be posting too many pictures of what I had for dinner and stuff like that. If there is something worth while to put on there, we will.

Q: You are halfway through the season. What do you need to see in these next eight games from Daniel that will prevent you from going into this offseason looking to improve the quarterback position either through the draft, free agency or any other way. I know you are sticking with him now. What do you need to see from him?

A: I need to see the same thing from every coach and every player and that’s continued improvement in everything we’re doing, period. It doesn’t matter who you are with the organization over the second half of the season, I expect to see a raised level of coaching and raised level of playing.

Q: What did you see from Carter Coughlin? He got some work there and Cam Brown too. They seemed like they were paired up together and doing some things.

A: They played in a couple packages for us last night on defense. Really kind of some more of third down packages. I think what Cam Brown really developing what he has is a good pass rush skill set. There’s some things that we’re kind of exposing him to that are new to him so we’re giving it to him in a little bit of small dose right now. He’s a guy that’s mainly made an impact for us in the kicking game. He’s a guy that’s really starting to go ahead and make some headway on defense for us. Carter Coughlin, he’s another guy in that same boat. He’s a high motor player. He’s got some flexibility for us as far as playing an inside stack linebacker as well as on the edge right there. He does have some pass rush value and he can also drop back to cover in some zone coverage or match a running back or tight end in man-to-man. These are both young guys who are developing. We’ve seen a lot of improvement in these guys. Really, if you look across the board, all the young guys we’re playing with and again there is no excused, I’m not alluding to that. The first part of the season (is) kind of replicating what they would’ve had in preseason of getting their feet wet to the NFL, learning the speed of the game and learning how the operation is different to what they’re use to in college. We’re starting to see a lot more production from all these guys and a raised level of play. I think TJ Brunson is another guy to highlight. That’s his second game playing, he goes out there on the kicking units, he’s making tackles every game. He’s doing a good job holding up in the return game. There’s a lot of guys that are making a lot of improvement. We’ve seen it in practice throughout the time, but now it’s starting to come to fruition in games, which is good for them to see. I see a lot of improvement, especially from these young guys across the board.

Q: Just to set the scene for today, how did it go for you guys? How involved were you on the phone compared to Dave and the personnel department? Were you guys in the same room? Were you not allowed to be? How did you guys work it all?

A: I think the thing that naturally happens with these moves, I don’t care if it’s trades, free agency, draft, whatever it may be. It’s a small league but everyone kind of has their own connections. It may be a deal you feel to call because someone has reached out to ask you something. I’ll go ahead and bounce it off Dave or he may ask my opinion on a player that I may have worked with before, something of that nature. To be honest with you, we were a lot more active in taking calls than we were in making calls today. We had a lot of people calling about our guys. Obviously, we’re going to have conversations throughout the organization about anything, that’s our responsibility to do our due diligence. Make sure we’re doing the best for the team. Today was really kind of a busier day with people calling us and having some internal conversations more so than being overly active in that.

Q: No single room you guys were in? Just kind of doing your own thing and reaching out to each other?

A: Yeah, there was a lot of times we were in the same room having conversations. This isn’t like the draft where there’s a war room or something of that nature. This is just more or less if someone calls you up, you walk to the other guys office, you have a quick exchange right there maybe involving different guys in the organization or different coaches. What you find in times like this is there’s a lot of communication throughout the league with different people they’re familiar with. You kind of talk as an organization in different avenues. Ultimately it comes down to a few guys talking in a room, making decisions and then moving on.

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players return to practice on Wednesday. Head Coach Joe Judge and select players will also address the media.

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Eric Kennedy

Eric Kennedy is Editor-in-Chief of BigBlueInteractive.com, a publication of Big Blue Interactive, LLC. Follow @BigBlueInteract on Twitter.

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